CM: Ne, ne -
GPW: In front -
IV: Okay!
GPW: Hands in front?
IV: I think it's a little bit (???)
CM: Wunderbar, läuft.
IV: Okay. Yeah, ah, you haven't been for the first time to Germany, I know, you've been several times -
GPW: I've been several times, I used to live over here.
IV: You used to live over here?
GPW: When my Dad was stationed here, yes.
IV: Ahja. How many years?
GPW: Oh, he was stationed here, ah, two different commands.
So I would come every summer for three months.
IV: But that was a long time ago?
GPW: Yeah, that was in highschool days. That was 30 years ago. I mean, college days.
IV: Yeah. But also during the last years, you came several times to Grafenwöhr.
GPW: I was in Grafenwöhr last year on a visit, just to meet the army people that are here.
And I come over here on behalf of General Patton's family as I'm a Patton just to say thank you.
Cause we appreciate all the soldiers that are in the army now.
And that's why - one of the reason why I come, to say thank you to the soldiers.
But today, I'm here to pay respects to - respect to the people both that aren't here and the ones that are here.
IV: How did you get the idea to come here? To the concentration camp?
GPW: I was invited by Anna and my cousin Helen Patton gave her my address.
And she emailed me and I said "Of course I will, I would be honored to be here."
My dad having been a prisoner of war, there's a lot of things in common but not the severity of the camps.
IV: So what did you expect to find here and what is your impression now? Having a walk around...
GPW: I'm real sad right now, to be honest, I -
it's difficult for me to say what I, I didn't expect, I didn't expect -
I didn't have any expectations except that I knew it was a very hard scene.
And it is.
And it's just.. to sort of imagine in my mind what went on from the Appell all the way down to the crematorium.
Ah.. it's just, it's just overwhelming.
I mean it's very sad for me right now.
IV: Ah. Your grandfather was a famous general here during the wartime.
He was here at the time where some of the concentration camps were liberated.
So when he died, I think you've been five years old?
GPW: I was five years old when he passed away, yes.
IV: So you can remember he -
GPW: I can remember him, oh yeah, very much so.
But I know one thing is, he hated the Nazis.
And I think the SS troopers were the top of the list..
The man he had, who served under him, he motivated them to push forward.
And this was a - the liberation of this camp and all the other camps were ahm,
that was probably a pleasurable moment for General Patton to give somebody back their freedom.
And there were a lot of people that got in his way and he did his job and he got here.
IV: So when you've been a child, in your family, your grandfather, he told you about the things he experienced here in Germany during the war?
GPW: My grandmother told me more, cause he died when I was five and ah..
So my grandmother told me more about what he experienced.
And then, I read a lot of his notes and memories and ahm.. his diaries.
And.. he truthfully could not understand how anybody could - could have the morality to do what they did.
From not only killing the ah, the Jewish people but the Jewish children.
In the way he did it, that was -
he would write home and just say "It's just horrific. What I see I can't believe."
As you know, one of the camps he brought all of the citizens in from the town, he made them dig them up.
And ah.. He didn't accept this at all as a punishment of any sort.
He was not - he was a good man, he was very compassionate.
And I think, that ahm..
when he saw what he saw, well I understand, he vomitted to be honest at one point.
He wrote that, that he did and this was..
it was just.. the idea, the ideology of Hitler to be able to think he could eliminate a race.
Ahm, I don't think General Patton even could conceive until he hit the first concentration camp.
And then he saw what the man was doing.
And that just angered him.
And so.. his men and.. the men were the men that did the job, the men did the job but General Patton really, this really upset him.
More than upset him.
IV: Do you think that gave an influence how, to your family?
GPW: Oh, yes.
IV: To your father, maybe to you. The way you were living?
GPW: Oh yeah. Ah, growing up as General Patton's grandson
and then, as my dad who was also a prisoner of war by the Germans, he was (???) in Poland
and then marched to Hammelburg. He did three death marches also.
Had a tremendous influence on us.
General Patton's influence on my father and my father on me, and ah..
I was blessed to have that influence but it was difficult ah.. Life is difficult.
But my life was easier because with ah.. what General Patton taught my dad, my dad taught me, so.
Ahm.. good things pass on, I hope. I hope my kids have got..
IV: So, your father also was in the military. Could it be also some kind of influence? To go to the army?
GPW: No, my dad was in the army ah, when he met my mother.
He graduated from West Point and ahm.
General Patton commanded the ah, his daughter, Beatrice, who was my mom, have a date with his, the Corps Captain at West Point.
And my father was the Corps Captain.
So he had the date.
And from then on, that was the only woman that he ever dated.
And then he married her, but my dad was a West Pointer class of '31.
And ahm, the influence in the military has always been in my family.
Almost everyone of the grandchildren have served their country.
Or served in some way.
Now I have a cousin who serves in, as a nun, you know, she's serving through Christ, I guess you could say.
So.. we've all been taught to serve.
And it wasn't an easy road to hold growing up I guarantee you, there were a lot of rules and regulations.
And General Patton's troops went through and they call him "Blood and Guts" and I understood those rules, so..
There was a great influence.
IV: And what's your opinion of Germany, growing up..
Or did you have, had in your mind, what is this Germany, what is this for a country?
GPW: Well I was taught to love Germany.
My father - when he came home from prisoner of war camp, ah,
he had no ill will or ill feelings towards the guards that he'd taken - that served him.
And he just taught me that everybody has a job to do.
But not a job like this concentration camp.
That's not a job. That's just.. that's just vicious.
And we were taught that these were bad but the Germans were great.
We lived in Germany with my dad would send Christmas cards to the guards.
That was a great relationship. He even drived German cars.
So we very much love Germany.
There's no ill feeling but.. after the war was over, we all understood, it wasn't the Germans.
It was the Nazis that.. the really devoted Nazis, those SS people that had other names in our house.
So ahm.. we loved Germany, it's beautiful.
I wish America had some of the things you have, some of the beautiful green fields and you know, such a busy, busy place.
That it -
IV: Okay.
GPW: Anything else?
IV: No.
GPW: I mean, I -